New York City’s
Metropolitan Transportation Authority released its 2010-2029 Twenty Year Needs
and Preliminary 2010-2014 Capital Program for public review and comment. Taken
together, these documents identify the MTA's long-term infrastructure needs and
a short-term plan to begin addressing them within current budget expectations.
The documents are available online at www.mta.info, where the public can also
submit comments.

Renovations to the Amtrak
and Virginia Railway Express train station in Fredericksburg, Va., are planned
to begin in spring 2010, the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star reports. Federal
funds set aside by Virginia 1st District Rep. Jo Ann Davis before her death in
2007 are waiting to be applied to the project. It will improve the appearance
and structure of the railroad overpasses that cross Caroline and Princess Anne
streets.

Watco
Transportation Services, Inc., started up a new railroad, the Alabama Warrior
Railway August 7. The ABWR operates 15 miles of track in and around Birmingham,
Ala., and interchanges with BNSF, Norfolk Southern and CSX Transportation. The
ABWR's chief mission is to deliver coal to Walter Coke Inc., a furnace and
foundry coke producer based in Birmingham.

Funding for two area
bridge projects is now in place, according to state Sen. James Seward,
R-Milford, local newspapers report. Work is expected to begin shortly on both
the Pony Farm Road Bridge in Oneonta, N.Y., and the Brooker Hollow Road Bridge
in East Worcester, N.Y., Seward said in a media release. The projects each have an
estimated cost of about $600,000.

Virginia will apply for
$72 million in federal stimulus money this month to build a third set of rails
between Prince William and Stafford counties, Inside NoVa.com reports. The
state is expected to file for the money Aug. 24, and if approved, it will go to
fund a third set of train tracks between Powell's Creek in Dumfries and the
Widewater area of Stafford County.

Canadian National Railway
is inching closer to transporting jet fuel from Flat Rock, Mich., to Toronto, according
to local newspapers. On June 22, the city's Planning Commission approved the
company's plan to open a jet fuel transfer station at its rail yard on the
north side of Vreeland Road, just east of Peters Road. Company officials are
working on obtaining permits from the Michigan Department of Environmental
Quality and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said Patrick Waldron,
Canadian National spokesman.

Squabbling in Congress
over how to pay for transportation could mean no federal cash in the near
future to fix Chicago's freight train bottleneck, a top official warned, the
Daily Herald reports. At a forum on freight
rail, representatives from the U.S. and Canadian governments and the business
community emphasized that trains are cheaper and more fuel-efficient than
trucks to move goods. Transport Canada official Kristine Burr said the public
and private sectors were investing $2 billion in freight rail projects there.

Norfolk Southern will
construct a new intermodal terminal in Greencastle, Pa., to serve the
Mid-Atlantic region, as part of the railroad's multi-state Crescent Corridor
initiative to establish a high-speed intermodal freight rail route between the
Gulf Coast and the Northeast. The $95-million facility, at which freight moving
in containers and trailers will be transferred between train and truck, will
occupy a 200-acre site adjacent to the planned Antrim Commons Business Park and
is expected to open in late 2011.

The Chicago Transit Authority Board
voted to adopt the locally preferred alternatives proposed for the Red, Orange
and Yellow Line extension projects. Following the steps required by the Federal
Transit Administration in order to apply for funding, the CTA studied all of
the potential options available for each of the projects, and has narrowed it
down to one viable option for each proposed extension.

An announcement will be
made August 13 as to whether a deal has been inked between Huron Central Rail
and its stakeholders to keep the rail line operational for at least another
year, the Sault Star reports. Meetings have been taking place throughout the
week with those stakeholders, including large users Essar Steel Algoma and
Domtar, the provincial and federal governments, municipalities, and the rail
line.

Joe Fratesi, the city's
CAO, who chairs a committee to broker a deal between Huron Central Railway and
the interested parties, said he's "encouraged" by the continuing
meetings.

"This all needs to
be pulled together by the end of the day Thursday," Fratesi said.
"Huron Central Rail has made it clear that there will be no extension of
the deadline that has been set and unless a deal is reached that it's
comfortable with and concludes before the 15th, all things set in motion to
stop the line will continue."

Mayor John Rowswell said
the federal government has sweetened the pot with an offer to consider "at
great speed," a $1.5-million application to FedNor to contributed to a
short-term fix for the Sault-to-Sudbury line.

MPP David Orazietti said
earlier this week the province would be "supportive of considering
short-term financing," for the ailing railway to the tune of "several
million" dollars.

"Now, it's a matter
of city council saving the day," said Rowswell.

The mayor said council
will be asked tonight to temporarily "backstop," a total of $3
million in pending federal and provincial funds, so that work on the railroad
can begin "now, this summer, this fall."

Council has called a
special meeting for 4:30 p. m.

"There are
implications for many communities if the railway shuts down, but (there are)
more immediate and larger ones for Sault Ste. Marie and its industries,"
Fratesi said.

Rowswell said saving the
rail line is crucial to the city's future, including the its ambition to turn
itself into a multi-modal transportation hub.